


Be My Indifferent Valentine

by squick_writes



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward situations, Gen, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff, Valentine's Day/White Day, ViTri childhood, Virus' eyebrow heightening intensifies, old fic - slightly edited, re-posted from tumblr, rushing to post this now as I have somewhere to be (will fix any mistakes later)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 10:45:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9720062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squick_writes/pseuds/squick_writes
Summary: Trip misunderstands the point of Valentine's Day.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the Pairing Prompt during #VirusWeek last year. For anyone else who doesn't actually quite ship ViTri romantically but wants their relationship to remain exactly as weird as it is in canon. But of course, you're welcome to interpret this differently if you so choose, at your own discretion ;o)
> 
> Enjoy!

 

HOLIDAYS, as it turned out, like many traditional aspects of life outside, were not something closely observed within the white halls of Toue’s private, so-called “correctional facility.” If recognized at all, such days of celebration were muted almost to the point where they might as well not exist, and most of the staff acted like they did not (at least while the children were looking).

 

This is why it came as such a surprise when, right in the middle of February, their teachers cracked previously unseen smiles and announced that they had the day off from their usual lessons and scientific testing. Instead, they would be allowed a short break to socialise among themselves and the other groups for a time.

 

From where Virus sat reclined in his desk chair, playing a pencil between the fingers of his left hand as he poised it over the paper he had ready in front of him, the young blond turned his head to gaze over at his neighbour in some puzzlement. Finding no answers nor confirmation there, he looked back to the teacher and raised his hand.

 

“Excuse me,” said Virus, with the usual polite but indifferent tone of respect (the one he reserved for authority figures he was not particularly impressed by). “What is the occasion, if I’m allowed to ask?”

 

His teacher’s smile grew even wider. “Did you not know? Today is the 14th of February.”

 

There was a slight murmur of understanding among the other children. Ohh. Valentine’s Day. How strange that of all holidays, this one was being acknowledged by the staff.

 

Meanwhile, several rooms apart, Trip's group was hearing a similar explanation as to why they were being given a reprieve from both school work and the Toue program’s routine testing. He listened with his chin resting on his folded arms upon the desk, although the stare he directed at his teacher was blank, his bottom lip jutting out with disinterest.

 

“This is a day for enjoying the company of others and expressing what they mean to you. So, in addition, chocolates and candy grams will be sold in the cafeteria for the duration of the break. Give them to the people you like, or anyone you think is special,” their teacher continued. His eyes seemed to be glittering with amusement. “You can also just write them a note yourself if you don’t have any pocket money left for purchases.”

 

“When can we go to the cafeteria?” some other kid was asking, but Trip was already distracted with his own thoughts.

 

He wondered what he was supposed to do with this new information - who did he like? He didn’t like anyone. He **hated** the brat that had just spoken; their voice was too loud and uneven and their nose was running. Disgusting. He could see the wetness glistening at the base of their nostrils. Every breath they took caught a rasp on the inhale and fogged up his air. If he were closer instead of sitting on the other side of the room, Trip would have punched them. Or maybe not. If he hit them, they might start breathing more heavily and he didn’t want to get any of their snot on him.

 

What had he been thinking about again? Oh yeah. Valentine’s Day. When you were apparently supposed to pass candy and notes to people you thought were special. Nobody was special to Trip. Not in this room anyway. Everyone in here was dirty, raucous and false, and they all moved on too fast. Even now, most of the other children had already left their seats and were heading out at the dismissal of their teacher and he had barely noticed. His mind turned to Virus, whose classroom would now be open for him to visit during the break. He wouldn’t even get in trouble. That was a good thing, at least.

 

Gradually, Trip snapped open the lid of his desk and looked inside for some paper and a pencil. It seemed only natural that if he was going to give a note to someone special for Valentine’s Day, it would have to be Virus. Even if it did seem a bit silly, Virus was the only person such an effort wouldn’t be wasted on.

 

Ah, but now what were you supposed to say in a Valentine's Day letter? The teacher hadn’t mentioned that part. Now that Trip thought about it, that seemed like kind of a massive oversight. He had never done this sort of thing before, after all.

 

It took him most of their first free period to decide and then to make up his mind to go, so that when he finally arrived at Virus’s classroom most of the older students had already returned to their seats in anticipation of the next lesson. Trip lingered in the doorway with his hands in his pockets to wait for permission to come in, ignoring the looks he was beginning to get from the other nasty creatures in the room. He stared at the back of Virus’s head as though the force from his gaze alone could penetrate the skull but Virus didn’t turn around. His fair, flat locks stayed firmly in place, head unmoving, a barrier between his cold blue eyes and the boy who stood waiting at the back of the class, seeking them out with a bored expression.

 

His teacher noticed Trip first. “Ah, Virus. I think you have a visitor.”

 

Once acknowledged, Trip sloped into the room and made his way over to Virus’s desk. It wasn’t the first time he had come to visit his classroom - this was a regular habit of his, so Virus wasn’t any more surprised than usual to see him here. He was smiling vaguely at someone else, however, as Trip came to stand beside his chair. They didn’t greet each other. Virus understood it that Trip didn’t speak very much in front of other people and rarely pressed him for formalities. They didn’t spend enough time with each other for him to feel comfortable doing that. He wasn’t Trip’s guardian or anything like that, after all.

 

Still, it was often on Virus’s mind that he might have been somewhat embarrassed by Trip’s silent presence if he were the kind of person to care more about what other people thought. Having a younger admirer was both good and bad for appearances, in a way. Virus could see how his classmates eyed the small red-haired boy with half smiles, just barely hiding giggles and gossip behind their hands. Their gazes moved from Trip to Virus, linking them by association, and so he gave them the slightest small smile, imitating sheepishness he didn’t truly feel. He then turned in his chair to try and read Trip’s face without quite expecting to find anything. There were a lot of times when he wasn’t sure what Trip was thinking.

 

Trip met his gaze briefly before his eyes trailed down Virus’s nose, then made an indistinct sound and looked down as he pulled a folded square of paper out of his pocket. He had almost forgotten that he had come to deliver this dumb Valentine’s note thing. Trip set it down in front of Virus, who almost reached out to pick it up, then paused. He looked back at Trip, nonplussed.

 

Trip watched him without saying anything. He was able to tell when Virus was confused by the way his eyebrows arched slightly above his glasses and his lips parted open. It was the expression he was most familiar with at this point.

 

“What’s this?” Virus finally asked, pulling the note towards him.

 

“It’s for today,” said Trip. He shoved his hands back into his pockets. “Valentine.”

 

Virus stared at him. There was a fresh wave of coos and giggles from the girls visiting together in the corner of the room but he was too busy trying to work out Trip’s intent to pay any mind to them. Whispers reached their ears nonetheless as the other students said things like, “Aww, that’s so cute! That little boy has a crush on Virus!” and, “Heh, looks like Virus got himself a small admirer. I knew it had to be something like that. Look at how small he is. You’re small, kid!”

 

Trip felt moderately uncomfortable as his eyes roamed the classroom, avoiding their smirks and knowing glances. He didn’t really understand what they were saying but apart from the way he was looking askance at Trip, Virus seemed to be cool with him being here, so...

 

“They said to give them to people who are different from everybody else,” Trip continued explaining. He watched as Virus hesitantly began to open the folded square of paper. “..I think that’s what he said anyway. So, thanks,” Trip added, remembering what he thought was the correct phrase in Japanese. Still slightly perturbed, Virus didn’t correct him.

 

[FYI: Trip said “domo,” a colloquial “thanks,” when he meant to say “dozo,” or “here.” Since my headcanon is that it’s not his first language, that seems like it would be an easy mistake for someone still learning Japanese. Good jorb there, Trip.]

 

Virus read the note with some difficulty; Trip’s handwriting was fairly awful. His eyes were a little wider than usual as they traced over the wide, sprawling letters.

 

The message was simple:

 

“Hi.

 

Hope today is good for you.

 

p.s. we could eat lunch together, if you want.”

 

Virus looked back up at Trip, perplexed, and squinted to tense his facial muscles just enough to nudge his glasses back into place from where they had slipped down his nose an infinitesimal amount.

 

“Teach didn’t say what to write in the notes though…” Trip mentioned lamely, looking away as he spoke. Oh, so he was self conscious, Virus realised to himself. He smiled a little, pleased to think he finally understood what was going on. He could also still feel the eyes of the many classroom onlookers and knew this would make an interesting story to relate to them later. That alone was enough to considerably brighten his mood.

 

“Ah, I get it. Thanks, I guess,” Virus said to Trip, folding the letter back over tidily. “But.. you know, girls are supposed to give these to the boys they like. That’s what today is about.”

 

“…like…” repeated Trip, rolling the word around on his tongue in an effort to remember its specific connotations. “.…like?” His teacher _had_ said that, hadn’t he? Trip felt his face redden slightly. “That’s not what I meant by it. I don’t like you-” He said it too quickly and the others laughed. Trip cast his eyes down to the floor, thoroughly dampered. “Like… that…” he finished slowly.

 

Virus kept smiling and released the quietest breath of mirth through his nose in schadenfreude at Trip’s obvious discomfort. Trip glanced back up at him sidelong when he heard it, eyes hard in an accusatory glare.

 

“I know. It’s fine. I’m just telling you,” said Virus easily. “Now you know. So, isn’t there someone else you’d rather give this to?” he asked, resting his elbow on the desk and holding out the folded note.

 

“No.”

 

“Ah. Really?” said Virus in surprise.

 

“I don’t like anyone.”

 

“Well I don’t have any use for it,” Virus pointed out straightforwardly, his tone becoming a little more clipped. He was getting tired of holding out the slip of paper.

 

Trip paused while looking at it and pushed his tongue into his cheek, creating a bulge under his lip. “Okay,” he said finally, when he had made up his mind on what to do next. He took the paper back from Virus. “Sorry. Bye.”

 

“Yep. See you later.”

 

Virus turned back to face the front of the classroom again and Trip headed for the door, crumpling the balled-up note in his hand.

 

He dropped it in the bin on his way out.

 

 ~♡~

 

It wasn’t until he was standing in line for the cafeteria, staring blankly at the pink cards, sugar cookies, and candy grams stacked on display (to be sold to the children who had demonstrated good financial planning skills - or in Trip's case, a penchant for thievery), that it occurred to Trip what Virus had said about girls giving notes to boys to show they liked them on this holiday. He had seen one of those on Virus’s desk, lined up neatly with the upper left corner.. No one had given Trip any. Not that he particularly would have wanted to receive one. Although, he saw as he slid his tray closer that some of them came with small chocolates and candy boxes. That wasn’t such a bad deal, he thought, picking up a blank note with a lollipop attached.

 

Pulling out his standard issue child's wallet from the pockets of his shorts, Trip bought one of each with the money he had collected - mostly from mugging anyone who looked at him or Virus funny in unattended halls - and then stole another handful while the cafeteria workers weren’t looking. He ripped off the cards and threw them out in a nearby garbage bin before sitting himself down at a table to eat lunch. When Virus joined him shortly thereafter, he wouldn’t share.

 

“Did you buy all of these yourself?” Virus inquired with raised eyebrows as he sat his tray down next to Trip.

 

“Sure did, so don’t touch. You got your own,” drawled Trip, lazily watching Virus from the corner of his eye. He spoke with one side of his mouth smashed full of chocolate. Virus did not lower his eyebrows (in fact they might have heightened a bit more) but also did not protest, merely looking down at his plastic utensils to unsheathe them from the clear casing. Trip decided after lunch that he was full anyway, and let Virus have the last piece of chocolate wrapped in blue foil after all. There were still plenty of other sweets left to stuff into his pockets for later.

 

 

* * *

 

 

A month passed.

 

As he was packing up his desk in preparation for the lunch break, Trip unexpectedly found Virus leaning up against the edge of it, holding out a juicebox and a simple slip of paper. He was smiling. There was a glint of amusement in his eyes, behind the glasses.

 

“What’s this?” said Trip.

 

“Happy White Day,” Virus answered cheerfully.

 

“...eh..?”

 

“Read it,” said Virus, nodding to the piece of paper he had pressed into Trip’s hand. “It’s an answer, a call-back to what you did on Valentine’s Day, remember? I think that’s a tradition here in Japan, isn’t it?”

 

Trip shrugged as he unfurled the slip. The message was even simpler than the one he had written to Virus, and penned by a much more precise hand, albeit with a slight slant.

 

“Thanks for thinking of me.”

 

That was all it said.

 

Trip looked up at Virus disbelievingly. Slowly, he broke into a lopsided, open-mouthed smile. From that angle, looking up with his dead eyes and grinning, he almost looked a little threatening. Virus wasn’t too worried. That's just how Trip was; it only meant he had found it funny. Or so he hoped. Virus returned the smile twice-fold just in case, narrowing his eyes shut briefly.

 

“Right?” he chuckled. “Come on, I think I heard there’s a chance the cafeteria is selling marshmallows and white chocolate chip cookies today. I’ll buy some for you, if you want.”

 

Oh yeah. There were a few reasons he didn’t dislike Virus.

 

Virus felt roughly the same way about him.

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> My other tumblr fics: http://squick-writes.tumblr.com/
> 
> This one was slightly edited to fit into the context of AO3. You can still read the original on my blog (though I'm not sure why you'd want to tbh, there's really no reason to do so;;) Happy Heart's Day!


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